Kim Joyce started as a 4th grade classroom teacher who wanted to support an educational model that could meet the needs of all of her students. The first step was a program in which she taught the same students in succession for both 4th and 5th grades, so that students would have continuity for their educational goals. Her experiments led her to become the science and technology curriculum coordinator for her elementary school, eventually leading to the position of statewide director for Massachusetts Virtual Education Space (VES). Representatives from 22 school districts who comprise a Board of Directors (the VES working group), the Massachusetts Department of Education, and the Massachusetts Corporation govern VES for Educational Telecommunication (MCET). At the end of September, the VES team will be moving offices into the state's Department of Education so that VES can further integrate into the department's programs.

CDE: How did VES begin?

Joyce: I worked on developing a comprehensive K-12 curriculum for science and technology, which took about a year and a half. The next year the state changed the standards, and so all the work was no longer aligned to state standards. It was heartbreaking more than annoying, because it was all volunteer work. This was something I was doing on top of being a teacher. So, in anticipation of future changes, we created the Curriculum Library Alignment and Sharing project (CLASP). We put the state standards into a database, and our curriculum in another, and student lesson plans in yet another, and related them all to each other so we could keep up with changes to the state standards.

We presented it to the state and received a grant in 1998 to disseminate the tool to other districts. We put it on a disk and gave it away for free. There were 20 other districts that participated in our workshops, and it was wildly successful. The minute you put two curriculum units together next to the state standards, you can see how the districts differ. The project grew into working with the state DOE on the Virtual Education Space, which is a whole set of pre-K12 educational tools and resources.

CDE: What's the basic idea of VES?

Joyce: The project was really based on the premise that you cannot fix education by giving teachers stuff like lesson plans or computers. The real power of educational reform is teachers' connections to students and each other in a peer environment that allows us to individualize instruction and see the current barriers to it. We will never create a one-to-one ratio between teachers and students, but you can create an environment that empowers students.

CDE: What have the adoption rates been like for VES?

Joyce: Adoption rates have been mostly program-driven. It was made available to all educators, and the pioneers jumped on board. And then whenever there was a facilitator, someone driving an initiative, there have been huge peaks. Our portal is based on rules and permissions that people have in the district and the state. For instance, over the last year we provided access to tutoring for 11th graders who flunked the statewide MCAS test. Conferences and regional events also encourage spikes of adoption.

We're looking at its impact. At the state level, we have been "content agnostic," because it's not about buying curriculum and units. It's more about vehicles and tools. VES is a utility of ways to enhance and jumpstart a local initiative. If they're using online technologies or certain software, VES can help solve the barriers that they are facing.

CDE: How does this effect continuous learning?

Joyce: We can learn so much from higher education, which is why my focus this year is on K-16 initiatives. We can learn a lot from them about learning management systems. Our state community colleges are all part of a larger system, so if we were to consolidate with them, there's a great economy of scale. There are certain things the state can do that are redundant for districts to do on their own. We moved our Internet hosting to the UMass system and are leveraging their operational staff.

CDE: What is the impact of VES on students?

Joyce: In an ideal world, you would have a student come to a school and regardless of where they come from, they have a portfolio that they can take with them to the local college. Dual enrollment high school students can also take college courses. VES has the ability for students and teachers to establish a framework for them to store documents in a kind of performance portfolio. We have the ability for a student with a disability to submit a portfolio online instead of taking the MCAS test.

Everyone has a virtual hard drive. From a budget perspective, we can't really afford a one-to-one computer to student ratio, but we can provide a one-to-one student to virtual computer. If they have Internet access, it can be their own personal computer - it knows who they are, has a calendar and pulls a lot of things together.

I think the ability to look at past work over time is a powerful means for moving from a knowledge base to a synthesis base in terms of the learning continuum. It's related to the theory of multiple intelligences from Howard Gardner. There are eight intelligences. We just have different ways of learning and expressing what we've learned.

I am very visual. If you give me a list or a poster or readings, I can retain it better than if you just stand in front and tell me. Portfolios allow students to express what they've learned in multiple ways. I may not be able to do a science experiment in this particular way or color in a map perfectly. There may be other ways for me to describe geography. We have to identify what the student knows by allowing them to express it in their own way. We have to empower them and create the scaffolding for their own learning.

CDE: What's your next challenge?

Joyce: We've worked hard on establishing a public-sector business model, so now we are implementing that. So often these large-scale initiatives get implemented at the state level and can't support themselves. Districts are used to doing a big project, and then the state taking it away. So we established our procurements as one-time assets, and then we can pay a maintenance fee. We are now "operationalizing" VES as a part of the Department of Education. It's a transition, a movement from an integration/development to adoption mode. So that's where we're focusing our resources.

CDE: Is there one thing people would be surprised to know about you?

Joyce: I would much rather see districts invest in "high touch" rather than the "high tech." The true power of public education is the connection between teachers and students. The computer is nothing more than a tool and should be seen as such. I believe in investing in small communities, inquiry-based education and exploration from a student perspective rather than spending money just for the sake of technology. People are surprised about this perspective, because I started this really large technology initiative.

CDE: What are your hobbies and interests?

Joyce: I am a runner and would love to run the Boston marathon, so I am getting closer to attempting to train for that. I'm also an animal fanatic and have three golden retrievers that are my absolute pride and joy. They ground me on a daily basis. I like nature, so I commute and hour and a half each way every day so I can live up in the country.